The U.S. Prison System

Paper Summary:

This paper describes prison conditions in the U.S. penal system and suggests that these very conditions, instead of alleviating and reducing the crime rate in America, actually perpetuate the problem. The paper explains why it is that prison conditions foster crime and points to the types of crimes committed while inmates are behind bars as proof of how the prison system is part of the crime problem.

From the Paper:

"The modern prison system exists for the intended purpose of preventing criminals from continuing to perform evil or destructive acts. The penal system is meant to bring justice by reducing crime, and ideally ending it all together. Those criminals who are a menace to society are to be removed from the population and put into an environment where they cannot continue to do any harm. Then, because the criminals have been removed from society, prison also prevents new crimes from taking place because of two wonderful side effects. For one, because the criminals have been removed from society, these negative influences have been taken out of the lives of impressionable youths and feeble minded adults who might have otherwise been swayed to join in the wrongdoing ways of the previously free-roaming criminal. Secondly, an example will have been made of this criminal that crime does not pay, and the fear of punishment should be sufficient to prevent others from walking the dark path of the criminal. In the ideal prison system, punishment would be reserved for those who had earned it, and all decisions would be based on the overall best interests of all innocent parties. Ideally, prison would be a way to show criminals the error of their ways while protecting the rights of all parties involved."

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